Germany urges people to limit hot baths to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas

The head of the German Energy Regulatory Authority, Klaus Mueller said in an interview with n-tv: “You’ll have to ask yourself whether you really need a hot bath seven days a week, especially especially with gas heating?”

His words are similar to the previous statement of the European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who advised European residents to “control the amount of hot water used by themselves and their families”.

According to Mueller, if Germany cuts off supplies from Russia, the gas reserves in the country will only be enough until the end of summer or at the latest in early autumn.

“Then the storages will be empty. We don’t want that to happen before winter,” the official expressed concern.

Last month, Germany launched an emergency plan to manage gas supplies to allocate energy and prioritize households and critical infrastructure, such as hospitals, pharmacies. and food manufacturing plants. Even so, in an interview with Die Zeit earlier this week, Mr. Mueller warned people not to be complacent, and called for a reduction in consumption per family.

Last week, the European Union (EU) approved a new package of sanctions against Russia, including a ban on coal imports starting from August 2022. Germany has stepped up efforts to reduce Russian gas supplies, but Berlin says it could take until the summer of 2024 to completely end Moscow’s reliance on energy. Russian oil now accounts for 25% of German imports, down from 35% at the beginning of February 2022. Gas imports were also cut to 40% from 55% previously. Russia’s hard coal imports also halved, to 25%.

Calls to end Europe’s reliance on Russian energy grew after Moscow launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24. Russia said the operation was aimed at demilitarizing the neighboring country. The US, UK, most of the EU and a few other countries have imposed economic bans and restrictions to pressure Russia to end this practice. However, this is considered not easy, especially in the context that many countries are still dependent on Russian oil and gas.